


My Boy

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 11:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12580284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: Jack and Mac and their friendship. A funny little anecdote. (Unbeta'd)





	My Boy

“How are we doing, Mac?” Jack asks urgently, peering out of the half-open door of the little garage adjoined to the abandoned house on a little hill somewhere in Eastern Europe where they took refuge from the bad people with big, big guns pursuing them.

There’s a loud clank and some rattling in the back, then Mac’s voice echoes through the dusty room, “Give me ten minutes, Jack, then we’re out of here.”

“Ten minutes?” Jack asks, trying to spot the baddies in the bushes. He has no idea why these people are even after them! They didn’t do anything, really, he, Mac and Cage. One small - tiny, actually - explosion shouldn’t count! “I can do that.”

Cage, who’s crouching next to him with a gun gripped in her hands, glances at him then back out again. “Won’t you ask him what he’s building back there?”

Grinning, Jack shakes his head. “ _God no_! He might actually try to explain it to me!” He shudders dramatically. “I prefer sticking to blind faith when it comes to my boy and his harebrained ideas!”

She looks at him again, longer this time, and then, almost hesitantly, she asks, “Don’t take it the wrong way, Jack, I really don’t mean it as an insult but - don’t you mind  _not_ understanding what he does?”

He smirks. “You mean, if I don’t mind being the ‘dumb one’ in this partnership?”

“That’s not what–” Cage hastens to say but he interrupts her.

“No, no, it’s okay. It’s true, after all. Compared to Mac, I  _am_ the dumb one. But then, compared to Mac almost everyone’s the dodo, really. I mean, you’ve been with us for a few weeks now. You’ve seen what the boy can do? It’s absolutely marvelous!” Jack says with honest admiration in his voice.

Then he continues, answering her question. “So, no, I don’t mind. I mean, at first I did, I thought he would a real jackass and enjoy rubbing my nose in how smart he was.” He smiles, a distant look settles in his eyes as he remembers. “There I was, another tour before me, just arrived in Afghanistan with my unit, and my LT calls me in and tells me: ‘Jack, this is Angus MacGyver. From now on, he’s your responsibility.’ God…”

Grinning, Jack shakes his head. “You should’ve seen him. He was nineteen!  _Nineteen_! And I thought to myself, ‘Fantastic! Glorified nanny, that’s what I’m gonna be.’ I was furious. I guess I must’ve run my mouth a little but the LT put his foot down - he was quite a prick, that guy…” He pauses. “To everyone  _but_ Mac, come to think of it. Anyway, my LT tells me he doesn’t give a rat’s ass if I like it or not, from now on, it’s my job to make sure that the kid can do his job. And I ask him what that kid’s job  _is_. And the LT tells me that Mac’s our new bomb expert.” He laughs. “I couldn’t believe my ears! A  _bomb_ expert!”

When his laugh subsides, his face softens. “But then I actually saw the boy at work. And let me tell you” –he looks straight at Cage, truly needing her to  _get_ what he’s saying– “I’ve seen men twice his age, hardened war veterans, who didn’t hold as well under pressure. There were missions when  _everything_ went pear shaped and he came up with the craziest solutions on the spot. He saved our hides and allowed us to successfully conclude more than one mission. He became our lucky charm, our Mac.”

Cage smiles, scanning the perimeter with her eyes, then looking back at Jack. “You really like him, don’t you?” And when Jack turns to her with his eyebrows raised questioningly, she explains, “I mean, you’re not just his security detail and he’s not just your asset. You  _really_ like him.”

Jack smiles again and peers outside. “I do. I  _really_ do. He’s my boy. When I saw what he could actually do, when I understood just  _how_ smart he was, I realized he should be working in a lab somewhere, bringing us a step closer to a trip to Mars or something. And yet, there he was, disarming IEDs under heavy fire so that schmucks like me would get home safely. Only an absolute moron would dislike a guy like him.”

And shrugging, Jack adds quietly, “I know I’ll never come even close to getting how that noggin of his works. I’ll never be as smart or as knowledgeable as he is. But I can make sure he has the time and space to do his work, as safely as possible. That way, I can add my own two cents to his genius.”

Glancing at him again, Cage tells him, “You’re a good man, Jack.”

Jack shrugs again. “Yeah, well…”

And then he notices movement outside, in the undergrowth at the foot of the hill. “We’ve got company, Mac,” he calls out, readying his gun.

There’s one last loud clang in the back of the garage, and then Mac calls back cheerily, “And I’m done!”

Getting up from his crouch, Jack turns and eyes the rusty car, some old model he doesn’t even recognize, that now has something bulky sticking out of its rear end. “What the hell is  _that_?” he asks.

Mac grins at him, hands and face smeared with oil, and pats the car on the hood as if it were his favorite pet. “ _That_ , Jack, is a  _rocket_ car!”

Jack brightens. “You built me a  _rocket_ car?” he asks in an excited voice.

“That I did!” Mac confirms and waves both Jack and Cage over. “Let’s hop in and get out of here!”

A minute later, they blast through the garage door and past the startled men with their big, big guns and whoosh down the hill, through the undergrowth and down the barely trodden path and onto the busy highway leading to safety,  _woohooing_ the whole way.


End file.
